Whether you're zipping around a cavernous soda warehouse in Limbo, or dashing across the bright, colorful landscape of a television program, DmC delivers one interesting level after another.

Admittedly, even with all the secrets you can find, I wish these magnificent levels were less linear, that the way forward wasn't always quite so clearly telegraphed.

Striking A Balance Between Open-World And Corridors

I've been thinking a lot about the balance between open-world and linear games lately.

Far Cry 3 illustrated the challenges of attaining this balance only too well.

At the time, I argued that the two didn't mix particularly well in Far Cry 3, that all that openness slowed the game down too much, killed the tension, and hindered whatever impact the narrative may have otherwise had.

Looking back, I still think the most fun I had with Far Cry 3 was while taking out individual pirate outposts.

The task of conquest itself was direct, but as a player I could tinker with strategy to my heart's content.

The act of capturing these little bases was straightforward enough, but you were never forced into a linear approach.

I would have liked to see more of this type of open-ended gameplay in DmC. Not necessarily open-world, but more open in terms of how each objective is carried out. There are a lot of great tools (okay, mostly weapons) at your disposal in the game. It would have been neat to see these come into play outside of combat more often.

There is so much good gameplay potential baked into each level of this game and yet it's never quite realized, never quite taken to the heights it deserves.

Occupy Limbo

DmC's story is, as I mentioned above, basically V for Vendetta with demons. And like that film, it's a pretty juvenile broadside against capitalism. I suppose in both cases the obtuseness of the narrative is gilded over with exciting stuff like explosions or, in DmC's case, the never-ending demon-slaying.

Arch-demon Mundus controls the world through Raptor News, his investment banking monopoly, and his mind-controlling soda pop.

All the trademark bogey men---investment bankers, Fox News, and consumerism---are served up on a platter, as if the game were designed with freshman lit students as the target audience, full of angst and half-baked intellectualism and just enough rebellion to be edgy.

While I admire the attempt to get a bit political and tell a more interesting story, it's too predictable and too hollow, too full of cliche to really work.

This is a huge shame, because the set-pieces themselves are enormously effective. I can't help but think that if the storytelling itself were less heavy-handed, the sets could tell a more profound and interesting story.

This is partly due to the thematic choices, but also the way exposition functions in the game.

We don't discover on our own that Raptor News is the stronghold of a demon propaganda network (as well as an upside down demon prison) we are told by Vergil.

Indeed, just about every "discovery" in the game is made not by Dante or the player, but by the witch Kat and your Machiavellian brother.

Like A Nephilim Out Of Hell

Now let's set all that aside. Despite the linearity of its levels and the awkwardness of its story and my intense dislike of New Dante (and each and every miniature cut-scene of his face) I'm having a hell of a good time playing this game.

DmC is actually tons of fun. I know a lot of people have complained that the combat is a step in the wrong direction for the franchise, and maybe that's true. I'm not nearly a diehard enough (or, let's face it, talented enough) player to really care.

One of the major complaints in terms of combat is that you can get really good scores just by button-spamming. But I still find that learning moves, figuring out which weapons and combos work on specific enemies, and taking time to approach each fight with a bit of strategy rather than just button-mashing actually pays off quite a bit.

There are certainly some odd difficulty spikes and valleys, but over all what makes this game so enjoyable is the combat. It's not the best action game out there, but it's still quite good.

When it comes to games like this, I do think that the fun factor is the most important thing. So however baffled I am by some of Ninja Theory's reboot decisions, I won't dock points for combat or fun. The game is at once stunningly gorgeous and hideously ugly, but it's always entertaining.

In fact, I'm pretty sure it's entertaining enough to justify a second play-through. I can't say that about a lot of games. I'm even half-tempted to get the costume pack so I can have the original "look" of Dante, not that this will save him from himself...but still.

In future installments, I'll take a closer look at the previous entries in this franchise. I'm actually really excited to go back and play the original Devil May Cry which I haven't played in years. Back in the glorious days of the PS2, this was one of my favorite action games.

It will also be interesting to see how the upcoming Metal Gear Rising Revengeance game compares. The demo for that game was excellent.